Circuit arrangements of the above mentioned general type are especially used in the field of automobile electronics. In that field of application, the integrated circuits (ICs) that are increasingly used in the vehicle electronics are supplied with power directly from the vehicle battery. In this regard, the problem typically arises, that the ICs may draw or consume no current or only a very limited current (e.g. I<10 μA) when the vehicle ignition is switched off, to avoid unnecessarily loading the battery, or especially to avoid excessively discharging or draining the battery. For this reason, the ICs are typically set into a so-called “sleep mode” or “standby mode” when their operation is not required and the ignition is switched off, and must then be “woken up” into the normal operating mode by an externally applied “wake-up” signal, for example by means of a remote control, for the respective ICs to become operational.